Engine rebuild with no former experience........

God, you have worms in your ignition module! Probably the highly dangerous copper worms. I would recommend a treatment with hexavalent chrome .....

Regards,
Lutz

I was able to remove the windscreen wiper motor via the glove box in the end. Easier than expected. 

 

Then onto remove the bulkhead insulation, not such an easy job. 

 

It is a bit of a mess, I can't see myself reusing it, I will price up a new one tomorrow morning. 



 There are couple of areas of rust, but not too bad. I will clean them up tomorrow but don't think I'll need to do any welding. 

 

 Getting close to be able to paint. 

Didn't get into the garage today, but went to the Mercedes dealer to pick up a few new parts and order a new bulkhead heat shield, £170 for a sheet of bitumen.

Throttle bulkhead gasket.
Offset woodruff keys which are now redundant.
10.9 strength bolts for the harmonic balancer.
Special lock nut for the steering box adjuster.



Then I got dragged into the garden to do some pruning, once the green bin was full there was no alternative to getting a fire going.



Then a few drinks as a reward, cheers!

Here is a question, can I remove the four main front subframe nuts and bolts with the car sitting on its wheels, without anything falling off / collapsing? I plan to do a bit more plating this weekend and would be handy to do them at the same time.

I've been plating for the last couple of days, it's like waiting for a kettle to boil, then another one, then another one........



The subframe bolts came out no problem.



Looking better now.

Hallo
Du galvanierst selber ???
Grüsse Werni

Yes, these are some of the parts in the plating tank.

Racediagnostics wrote:  it's like waiting for a kettle to boil, .......
 

Hi Jim,
I think the better expression would be "it's like watching paint dry" in a more literal sense. Amazing, what you do. And all this on a lonely island without permanent supplies ... hats off!

Thomas

Next, back into the garage!



This area is the biggest concern.



The tools.



This looks bad, I wish I had a better understanding of how this fits together.



It was easier to strip most of the paint rather than just try to remove the old contact adhesive.



Ready to remove the bonnet.



Kim is very tolerant!





I think I will cut out the spot welds and peel back the "tabs" and then cut out the corroded area.

Jim, my Wife would kill me 

Thorsten, why? The flowers are on the table and I suppose they ar from Jim:-)

Hallo Jim

youre wife is a dream,respect.

Mike

I have this old picture showing the inside of the box section showing the flange in the top left area.



Just beyond the inner wing.



So went ahead and cut out this section.



I decided not to disturb the tab from the chassis rail and instead build up this area with weld supporting with a copper pad.





Paper template.



I used 2mm steel for the repair.



Cut and shaped.



Fine tuned.



Welded in.

Tidied up.



The box section treated with Dinitrol ML.

This morning I removed the anti roll bar to give better access for painting, ideally I would remove the subframe too but I want to be able to roll the car back out of the garage a bit for painting so I will just mask it up.





Next I decided to install riv-nuts for the ignition ECU mounting bracket, better than trying to reach round to fit nuts.







Finally a job I think I've been putting off for a while, cleaning the engine bay. Degreaser first, then I'll sand it to give a key and then clean again with thinners. Boring and will take a couple of days to complete as there is lots of baked on grease.



This section above the radiator looks like its never been cleaned in the last 42 years.



That looks better.



Probably no update tomorrow as it will just be more of the same.

After a couple of days of preparation the engine bay is ready for paint. I will use an epoxy primer then basecoat and clear.

A few new supplies I had to purchase today, unfortunately I had no masking paper or film left, these will last me a lifetime.



The car was originally Magnetite blue but when I first started respraying it back in 2016 the colour spectrometer matched up Lada Sapphire blue as a closer match, so I have stuck with that since.



The bad news is that the weather forecast is cold (less than 10degC) for the next two weeks, so the painting will have to go on hold.

In the meantime I will push ahead mounting the transmission to the engine but as I don't want to leave the engine hanging on the crane or resting on the oil sump, I will need to make a frame so it can sit on the engine and transmission mounting points.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationThe alternator connector has never had a cover and now also has this insulation problem.



I was able to buy a cheap generic connector on ebay.



A new wire spliced in and the new connector fitted.



I then started to weld up a frame to support the engine, it was going well...



...... until the welder started to fail.



It then completely died.

A quick poke around inside revealed nothing, so I left it for 10 minutes and it burst back into life, I think a thermal cut-out out had triggered.



I'll finish the job tomorrow and move the engine off the stand and onto my new support.

Hi Jim,

I believe your welder wants a cleaning!
The dust makes cooling less effective and, depending on its character, could also have an impact on the connectors and/or the functionality of the PCB.

Regards,
Lutz

The first job today was to flip the engine and fit the feet at the rear of the block.



Next I removed the restored pan from the transmission and replaced it with the one from the old trans. I will refit the new one once it is back in the engine to avoid the paint being scratched.



Transferring the engine from the stand to the crane. Lots of parts removed first, they will be refitted once the engine is back in the car.



My dolly could do with being a bit wider, so I welded the two supports together.





The block supported at the back with timber.



Next the rear cover, treated with hylomar and grease packed into the seal to stop its internal spring from falling out when fitting.





This part which is bolted to the intermediate cover seems to be there just to collect oil leaks from the rear of the engine.

Intermediate flange fitted.



Finally the flex plate fitted.



Ready for the transmission tomorrow.